Jun 28 2010: Dreams come true with The Taylor Oliver Partnership

Dreams come true with The Taylor Oliver Partnership

THE Audi TT parked in the drive looks like the perfect dream vehicle…but Graham Thompson admits it’s a dream that almost didn’t come true.
The Derbyshire engineer spent half a century working to provide financial security for himself and his family.
Bu it was only with the support and encouragement of Chesterfield’s award-winning financial planners The Taylor Oliver Partnership that 69-year-old Graham finally began to enjoy the fruits of his labours.
And the luxury sports car is the proof at last that it’s never too late to make a dream a reality.
“I am the sort of person that wants to best value from an investment,” Graham admits.
“But basically, and more importantly, I need to trust the person I am dealing with and that means, of course, not just trusting them with my money but trusting them with the future.
“I’d worked with investment specialists before – they invest your money and simply walk away.
“But The Taylor Oliver Partnership are with you every step of the way.”
Graham and wife Joan had always worked hard for themselves and their four children – Graham as an engineer and manager with a major company and Joan as a matron at Sheffield’s famous Jessop Hospital.
The couple had been working with Taylor Oliver’s Louise Oliver for several years but Joan’s unexpected death in 2003 left Graham facing a very different future to the one they had planned together.
Graham knew he didn’t have to worry about finances but he didn’t seem to be able to enjoy life as he should until Louise persuaded him to take a close look at his priorities.
After creating a well thought out financial plan Louise asked Graham to watch The Bucket List, the film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two old men determined to make their dreams come true.
The next step was for Graham to draw up his own Bucket List – the name comes from the fact that you write down all the things you want to do before you kick the bucket.
It wasn’t an overly ambitious list – the two biggest wishes were the chance to buy an Audi TT and to take a cruise aboard luxury liner Queen Mary 2.
But as Graham concedes: “I did have a guilt complex about spending money.
“It’s my background I suppose. I come from a working class family, my father worked shifts seven days a week all his life and my mother worked too and Joan and I had worked hard too to achieve the things we wanted.
“I knew I could afford to do things but there was something inside me that would say to me: ‘That’s a little bit too much’ or ‘you have a car so why do you want another?’
“It was a bit of a complex and it was difficult for me to come to terms with.”
Louise had looked after the family’s finances for several years though and was able to demonstrate to Graham that he should now be enjoying the life he had worked so hard for, that there was no need to worry about spending some of his money – and that there was certainly no need to fret about eating into any inheritance for his children or grandchildren.
Louise made it very clear that I could do what I wanted to,” Graham recalls. “I think what she does with the Bucket List is startle people into the realisation that they can do what they want to do.”
So the luxury cruise has been booked and the Audi TT now sparkles in the drive – with no obvious impact on Graham’s savings and investments.
“Louise has helped me so much by stopping all the guilt feelings I had,” he explains.
“I would recommend The Taylor Oliver Partnership to anybody because I’ve always been able to trust them and because they approach financial planning in a completely different way.
“They are not out to make millions for themselves and the Bucket List absolutely typifies their approach.
“It is their different perspective that has helped me to enjoy a different perspective.”

To find out more about The Taylor Oliver Partnership visit: www.tayloroliver.co.uk or call 01246 268 527.
www.tayloroliver.co.uk